they will tell you how they enjoyed
the privilege of being the only ones

that could use their hands to keep
everyone else from enjoying themselves.

As everyone knows, popes
are very entertaining as they perform

their duties. They know a lot of jokes
about friends, rabbis, monks, imams,

etc. Not everyone enjoys them, though.
One pope was shot.

I guess it’s pretty sad,
but they had another waiting in the wings.

At least, he enjoyed his tenure.
Recently, I heard the pope

was beginning his US tour,
and after thinking of Katy Perry’s

forthcoming work, I set out
on this hunt in search of sheep—

maybe the shepherd. I only found
these old jokes about hats

and the Popemobile (a Humvee
Pancho likens to a sardine can),

and that he maintains
he hasn’t got much to lose in death.

My mother still gets very emotional
when she sees the pope,

but that’s more an Argentinean
pride thing. I guess I am proud

of his current manifestation.
Today, my Catholicism

is some antique Savonarola
or Chaise Longue I put in storage

because they make little sense
in a modern living room.

Until now, it never seemed evangelical
thrones gave half a shit

about the warming of heaven
or how to make those puffy clouds

inclusive for all,
even if it means a woman being author

of her own decisions,
or encouraging two life partners

to lovingly cuddle on said
plush Chaise Longue. Optimism

is a strong suit of mine,
so I won’t get carried away. My hope

rests in the thought that the flies
are leaving the lips of our dead popes

in search of fresh carcasses,
that the remains of our popes and clergy

are treated as such, just bones,
some tangled up

in the roots of an upturned tree,
faults and crimes

evidenced by the trauma
dealt on their skeletons,

and some placed in a wooden box
labeled Well Behaved Pope,

and set aside so we can move on
to more important things.

Lucian Mattison‘s full-length collection, Peregrine Nation, won the 2014 Dogfish Head Poetry Prize from The Broadkill River Press. His poems appear or are forthcoming in The Adroit Journal, apt, Everyday Genius, Hobart, Muzzle, Nashville Review, and elsewhere online and in print. His fiction is soon to appear in Fiddleblack and Per Contra. He is an associate editor for Big Lucks. To read more, visit lucianmattison.com.